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Article 2760 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Cargo Cult Science
Message-ID: <1992Jan15.232900.27102@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 15 Jan 92 23:29:00 GMT
References: <92Jan15.081805est.14473@neat.cs.toronto.edu>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 35

In article <92Jan15.081805est.14473@neat.cs.toronto.edu> mgreen@cs.toronto.edu (Marc Green) writes:
>It's clear from the discussion that advocates of Strong-AI, and
>computer scientists in general, don't have much understanding of
>empirical science. The essense of science is refutability. For any
>hypothesis to be taken seriously, it must be open to refutation. This
>means that the advacates must spell out exactly what evidence they
>would take as contradictory to the hypothesis. Well, what evidence
>would refute Strong-AI? 
>
>I've never gotten a straight answer to this one. Usually I get the
>"someday defense." You know, "someday we'll be able to do this" or

 While you are taking on AI, and disallowing the "someday" defense, here are
some more things you should discard:

	that the sun will eventually become a red giant;

	that the average temperature will rise by about 2 degrees
	within about one century;

	that there will eventually be another large earthquake on
	the san Andreas fault;

	that there will be a presidential election next November;

	that you will live to be 200 years old.

 Oops.  I take it back.  The last one is refutable.  However the person
who successfully refutes may have to face a homicide charge.

-- 
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  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115                                   +1-815-753-6940


